Russell Arben Fox

Russell Arben Fox
190 POSTS490 COMMENTS
https://inmedias.blogspot.com/
Russell Arben Fox grew up milking cows and baling hay in Spokane Valley, WA, but now lives in Wichita, KS, where he runs the History & Politics and the Honors programs at Friends University, a small Christian liberal arts college. He aspires to write a book about the theory and practice of democracy, community, and environmental sustainability in small to mid-sized cities, like the one he has made his and his family's home; his scribblings pertaining to that and related subjects are collected at the Substack "Wichita and the Mittelpolitan." He also blogs--irregularly and usually at too-great a length--more broadly about politics, philosophy, religion, socialism, bicycling, books, farming, pop music, and whatever else strikes his fancy, at "In Medias Res."

Recent Essays

Why Cities Ought to, Sometimes, Challenge Their States

On next Tuesday’s ballot here in Wichita, KS, voters will be able to, whether they realize it or not, directly contribute to an ongoing...

“I’ve been called a Marxist and a conservative. I guess both are kind of true.”

Matthew Crawford, about whom we have talked a good deal before here at Front Porch Republic, is back with a new book. Like so...

Marijuana and Self-Government, Large and Small

Here in the Air Capital of the World, the Wichita City Council, in response to the second attempt by dozens of local volunteers to...

Local Wonderings in Wichita

Wichita, KS, is the home to a wonderful bookstore, Eighth Day Books. (Which isn't my favorite bookstore in Wichita, but that's partly because my...

Blasphemers, Terrorists, and Liberals in Your Neighborhood

Would I read Charlie Hebdo? (Assuming I could read French, that is.) Would I want anyone in my family to read it? Would I...

Local Dynasties Only, Please

With former Florida Governor Jeb Bush's announcement on Tuesday that he's "actively explore the possibility of running for President of the United States"--a move...

A Porcher With Power

On Friday, Caleb Stegall--lawyer, farmer, family man, rabble-rouser, and long-time Front Porcher--was appointed to the Kansas Supreme Court by Governor Sam Brownback. The criticisms...

Recognizing the Religion of Total Security, and Its Costs

There are relatively few developments in the world's present socio-economic and cultural moment that gives me much hope--but one of them is the increased...

Anarchism, Global Citites, and a Confucian Cosmopolitan Education

I recently attended a conference in Nanjing, China, hosted by the Hopkins-Nanjing Center and organized our fellow Porcher, Adam Webb. You can read a...

Conservatism, Localism, and the Mittelpolitan Problem

This morning, I completed a series of lectures and discussions with a local civic group here in Wichita. The topic for this morning...

City Liberty, Country Liberty

It's clear to me that one of the primary things people (in the United States, certainly, but also elsewhere) think about when trying to...

Seeing Our (Non-Cosmopolitan) Selves

Some years ago, some of the folks behind F5, an alternative weekly newspaper here in Wichita, started a different (and, as it turned out,...